Who changed you, water lily, who betrayed
and left your leaves to sway half-drownëd here?
Your moon-dazed face is pale, night-sick, afraid.
Water lily so wounded, so austere.
You of many stems but a single face--
no voice at all except poems water-writ.
Who muddied the stars of your secret place,
and forced such a sorrowful alphabet?
________
A rispetto poem for What's Going On?--"The Dark"
Music: the late Marianne Faithful Sad Lisa